Swin flow - Research Paper Example

A person acquires flu when the droplets land into their mouths or noses (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]). The flu can be passed on before a person knows he or she is sick or when the person is sick. Majority of the healthy adults can infect others on day 1 before the symptoms can develop and up to five to seven days after the adult becomes sick. Children and people with a weak immune system can infect others for a long time. The disease is unpredictable and how severe it can be varies from one season to the other and it is dependent on the following things; (a) the type of the flu viruses spreading, (b) the amount of flu vaccine available, (c) the time the vaccine is available, (d) the number of people who get vaccinated, and (e) the conformity and compatibility of the vaccine to the flu viruses causing the illness.

People at high risk of developing serious complications when they get the flu include the older people, pregnant women, young children and people with particular health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or asthma. Between 1976 and 2006, flu-associated deaths are estimated to be in the range of 3, 000 to 49, 000 people. 2009/2010 period witnessed the first flu pandemic in over 40 years. 2009 H1N1 pandemic caused 12, 000 flu-associated deaths in the United States (CDC). More than 90 percent of the H1N1 death occurrences were among people who were younger than 65 years of age.

Seasonal influenza is estimated to kill more than 36, 000 people and hospitalizing more than 200, 000 per year in the United States (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [NIAID]) The following are some of the complications that are associated with flu; ear infections, bacterial pneumonia, dehydration, sinus infections, and deterioration of chronic medical conditions such as asthma, congestive heart failure and diabetes. Research institutes such as